2001-12-17 - 2:14 PM
The Cottage
It really sucks when you've written a lot in an entry, then by the hate of some awesome being, your computer freezes. That just plumb sucks. That's all I'm willing to say about that. Bleh.
In any case, I had a nice conversation with Grampa early this morning, from around midnight to three, I'd say. It all started with me asking him whether or not he believed that we had found a cure for cancer. If you think about it, if they DID find a cure, would they be selfless enough to give it up? With as much greed as there is in the world, I'm sure that there's a large possibility that they wouldn't give it up - considering the fact that they make billions of dollars off of this horrible thing a year, not to mention the millions upon millions worth of funding and attention. I mean, can you honestly tell me that with our advanced technology, exorbitant funding, superfluous knowledge, determined motivation, and personal attachment to cancer - after all this time, we STILL haven't found a cure? We clone sheep, put men on the moon, make hybrid fruit, give people new body parts, transplant hearts, make bigger boobs, create the Pop Tart - and you're telling me we can't find a cure for cancer?!? Eh, pure poppycock.
But whatever, we then went on to give our theories about AIDS and how to destroy it. Then we went into different ideas about life - inanimate objects being able to instantaneously become animate, just to spite what we deem as realistic. Then, strategically, we ended up talking about what Grampa needed to write an essay about. We ended up talking about society, the economic and social change in the near future, the "normal" goals in life, work ethic, and even the purpose of college. To say the least, it was a pretty invigorating conversation, and I'm glad that it kept me up for so long.
We went into great depth about what we wanted from life - and the limitations we have in what we're allowed to achieve nowadays.
I want the cottage in the countryside, around the neck of the woods. I want a fireplace and a library of my own in a homely home. I want a family, a loving wife, children, a dog. I want to walk outside my door and be able to walk through a pasture. I want to breathe in fresh air, be able to sit on a porch through dawns and dusks, sunsets and sunrises. I want to grow most of our own food, walk to town a few times a week for what we need. I want a simple life - a modern life, stripped of all the excess and unneeded things. I want the Little House On The Prairie. I want the time to write, the time to read, the time to draw, to make music - to think.
I'd have everything I'll ever need from life, in one little chunk. The love we all need to feel, will all be there. The great feelings you get when you're around your wife or your kids, will all be there. The passion in doing the things you love to do, will all be there. It'll just, all be there - making me happy, and the rest of my family. We'd have the necessities.
But this is a want that we can't have. You just can't do that nowadays. Try to run away, you end up on land that's already owned, and you get kicked out for not contributing to society. And that's precisely it - like I've said before, society's a downward spiral into the shitter. God's going to flood the world pretty soon, and mankind (and womankind) will have to start all over. Hey, "third time's a charm", but fuck that, right?
Point is, society's suffocation is inescapable. You can't have that cottage. The closest you can get is a home in the country, but you still pay taxes, you still get hounded. You work for all the wrong reasons (for self, especially money for SELF, and not the betterment of society or your neighborhood). You work your whole life to be able to reap what you sow, but once you get to that point, you're only three years before death from old age. A third of your life goes to schooling. Another third goes to sleeping. The rest is made up of your working towards this goal that can't be reached. It's all natural selection, like Grampa says. You've got those blessed enough to be diamonds in the rough. You get the Michael Jordans and Michael Jacksons who were just born with the God-given talent that happens to be exactly what society will pay to see. Does it make sense that a guy who can put a ball in a basket or do a Moonwalk, will get dozens of millions, if they just said one line in a commercial? Meanwhile, you have the hard-working backbone of society (the nurses with bags under the eyes, the ones who slave over French fries, the bakers who don't sleep to make an order, etc.) working their skin to the bones, their whole lives, just to get by. They're more deserving of the millions. Maybe in fifteen years, they could save up a sixth of a million dollars, when the Jordans and Jacksons can make twenty-five mill in fifteen seconds.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm one of Michael Jackson's biggest fans - and I'd be one of Jordan's if I were into sports. I'm in no way castigating THEM, but just some of our weird ways of thinking or doing things. I mean, I'd jump on the chance to be a star, as a matter of fact, I wish I WERE one. But it's all relative. If that's not what it took to make the mills, I wouldn't want to just be a "star" for the fact of being one. Like Grampa says, with his infinite wisdom in his old age, "you gotta pimp the game." The game sets the rules, and you HAVE to play by them. The game sets the goals, and those are the ONLY things you can achieve. The game doesn't allow you to be a spectator. The game doesn't give you the cottage as an option. You either work hard to get the buck just to make ends meet, or you have to be a "star". You have to go through college to get a "decent" job, to get that decent check, to make a sort of decent life. You have to "pimp the game."
And college, it's a shame what we've done to it and its idea. We've strayed a long way from ancient times, when you went to college, if you WANTED to, as an extra thing on the side, to become a more well-rounded person. You'd go there, meet with others like yourself, and feed off of each other. There was no requirement. Coming out of college didn't make you higher in society, but just higher in your mind, your spirit, your soul. Now, society labels going to college as "normal", you BETTER go through college. You BETTER get that degree. You BETTER have it listed on your resume. You BETTER end up getting a semi-decent job to support your less than decent life. It really is a shame that people frown upon just starting on your life of work, skipping college. It really is - and I can go on about this, but I won't.
The fact of the matter is, society's a bit messed up, backwards in many ways. It's inescapable, and it's sad. There's no room for idealism, nor room for the cottage. The game is set, and you have to play. No questions about it. So, yeah. "Pimp the game." Do whatcha gotta do, to succeed in getting what you're allowed to get.
Keep wishing for the cottage though. It's good to dream. It's good for the soul. It's good to be reminded about what is important in life - the family, the love, the passion.
Keep wishing for the cottage.
